---
title: The shepherd did as he was told, then the King of the Snakes spat ag… — The Crimson Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The shepherd did as he was told, then the King of the Snakes spat again into the shepherd’s mouth. Who acts: Snakes. A sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 6, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Crimson Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 6, sentence 30

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The shepherd did as he was told, then the King of the Snakes spat again into the shepherd’s mouth.

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**Who acts:** Snakes · **What happens:** tell, spat · **To what, where:** shepherd, King, mouth · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Crimson Fairy Book, part 6. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Snakes), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher.** This tree is Mova's own parse (the `en` model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg2435:6:30
# text = The shepherd did as he was told, then the King of the Snakes spat again into the shepherd’s mouth.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	shepherd	shepherd	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
4	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux:pass	_	_
7	told	tell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	11	advmod	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	King	King	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	Snakes	snake	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nsubj	_	_
15	spat	spat	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	ccomp	_	_
16	again	again	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
17	into	into	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	shepherd	shepherd	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	’s	's	PART	POS	_	19	case	_	_
21	mouth	mouth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past · passive · do-support |  | the shepherd |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: subject=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **spat** | present | the Snakes | the King |  | the shepherd's mouth | again |  | vn battle-36.4 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

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**Text:** «The Crimson Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 2435 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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